fate of the strawberries: 2015 edition

The best part about picking loads of strawberries, besides just eating them, is trying out new strawberry recipes! See past recipes HERE, including my favorite strawberry tart and the discovery of strawberry curd.

Strawberry Dark Chocolate Hand Pies
Recipe from Two Peas and Their Pod

These were delicious and easy to make, although assembly did take a little time. Love the combination of strawberry and chocolate.

Strawberry Lemon Cookie Bars with Lemon Glaze

Recipe found HERE

I love anything lemon and I loved these bars. I made them twice and the second time I underbaked the crust a little and they weren't quite as awesome as the first batch. But the buttery crust is so yummy and the lemon glaze adds just the right amount of lemon. (I added lemon zest to the glaze.)

Strawberry Shortcake

Strawberry shortcake has always been my favorite. I have a favorite sweet biscuit recipe from Martha Stewart that I usually use but I often experiment with other biscuit recipes as well. I also tried making a pound cake for a strawberry lime and coconut cream variation and that was delicious too (recipe found HERE).

Strawberry Cheesecake Muffins

Recipe found HERE

The lemon cream cheese filling in these strawberry muffins is so good. And the graham cracker streusel just takes them over the top. We had them for breakfast, but they're pretty much dessert.

Strawberry Freezer Jam

We picked berries a second time because we ran out of strawberries to make jam. My first batch didn't set up well because I used some old expired pectin (which was also not my usual brand) and of course it was the batch I made when we had company here. But it still tasted good, especially on warm, homemade biscuits. I made 2 more batches of jam that turned out much better. One batch for teacher appreciation gifts and one for us.

Strawberry Cobbler with Cream Cheese Swirled Biscuits
Recipe found HERE

I made this on Memorial Day and it was so delicious. The cream cheese swirled biscuits alone are so yummy (might need to try them with strawberry shortcake). I also might have a biscuit obsession. The warm strawberry juices served alongside some ice cream...perfection.

bars and more bars

Some dear friends from Virginia (the Pinkneys) were in town a few weeks ago and we were so excited to have them over for dinner (along with a few families in our ward that they knew from years back...small world). It was a good excuse to try some new recipes, and my old favorite lemon bar recipe.

 Samoa cookie bars. Recipe found HERE. So good. I especially loved the shortbread crust on these.

Chocolate peanut butter cup brownie bars. Recipe found HERE. Intense chocolatey goodness.

spring panzanella salad

Made this spring panzanella salad and loved it. So light and fresh. Asparagus, peas, feta, herbed bread, and a lemon vinaigrette. Yum. Recipe found here.

Farm Week: State Farmers Market

A trip to the State Farmers Market seemed perfect for farm week. We love having this awesome farmers market so close to our house. It's open every day of the year! It's fun to stop by and see what's available. On this visit there were lots of gorgeous tomatoes, peppers, squash, watermelon, and peaches, just to name a few. 

I made this summer vegetable gratin for dinner (recipe from Cook's Illustrated) and it was SO good. The kids weren't too excited about it but gave it a try. 

And for dessert...grilled peach splits. (Recipe from Smitten Kitchen.) Oh my delicious. I could eat these every day in the summer. Plain old grilled peaches are pretty delicious on their own, but add some salted caramel sauce, ice cream, whipped cream, and cookie crumbles and you have a killer dessert. Forget banana splits. Peach splits are where it's at.

And a few more farm fresh delights from farm week...

the fate of the strawberries.

We've picked strawberries the last few years and I always make strawberry jam and a few of my favorite strawberry desserts. But this year I wanted to try some new recipes. I was excited to discover the deliciousness of strawberry curd and a recipe that combined my love of lemon with strawberry.

Thanks to Amelia's determination to pick as many strawberries as possible, we had plenty (over 13 pounds) to work with. (Read about our trip to Shlagel Farms here.)

This strawberry tart recipe from my friend Sarah is one of my favorites. It's easy to make (which is good since I had to make the crust with one hand while holding Simon). The shortbread crust is delicious. Elsa had fun arranging the berries on the tart.

Strawberry Tart

Crust:
1 1/4 cups flour (spooned and leveled)
1/2 cup cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 tsp salt

Filling:
8 oz cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 to 2 lbs strawberries, hulled and halved
1/4 cup red currant jelly

Crust: Preheat oven to 350*. In a food processor, blend flour, butter, sugar, and salt until moist crumbs form. Transfer dough to a 9” round tart pan with a removable bottom. With floured fingers, press dough evenly into pan and up sides. Dip a dry-measuring cup in flour, and use it to press dough firmly into bottom and against sides of pan. Freeze crust until firm, 10-15 minutes. Using a fork, prick crust all over. Bake until golden, 20-25 min, pressing down gently once or twice with a spoon during baking if crust puffs up. Cool completely in pan. (Note: The crust really hardens up after cooling, so be sure to not overbake. It will get really hard. It tastes like a shortbread cookie crust.)

Filling: In a medium bowl, mix cream cheese and sugar until smooth; spread mixture evenly in bottom of baked crust (still in tart pan). Starting from outside edge, arrange strawberry halves, stemmed side down, in tight concentric circles on cream cheese (alternate cut strawberry side with each circle). In a small saucepan, heat jelly on med-low until liquefied. Gently brush strawberries with jelly; let set at least 20 minutes. Chill in pan at least 1 hour (and up to 6 hours); remove from pan just before serving.

I really loved these strawberry-lemonade muffins. That yummy citrus flavor with bits of strawberries. I found the recipe here.

Strawberry-Lemonade Muffins

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups self-rising flour 

1 1/4 cups sugar, divided 

1 (8-oz.) container sour cream 

1/2 cup butter, melted

1 tablespoon lemon zest

1/4 cup fresh lemon juice

2 large eggs, lightly beaten

1 1/2 cups diced fresh strawberries

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 400°. Combine flour and 1 cup sugar in a large bowl; make a well in center of mixture.

Stir together sour cream and next 4 ingredients; add to flour mixture, stirring just until dry ingredients are moistened. Gently fold strawberries into batter. Spoon batter into lightly greased 12-cup muffin pans, filling three-fourths full. Sprinkle remaining 1/4 cup sugar over batter.

Bake at 400° for 16 to 18 minutes or until golden brown and a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pans on a wire rack 1 minute; remove from pans to wire rack, and cool 10 minutes.

I've made lemon curd but never thought about strawberry curd. The process is very similar and the results are just as amazing. It was delicious on muffins, biscuits, pancakes, crepes, and straight from the jar. It would also make a perfect filling for mini tarts.

I used this recipe.

Strawberry Curd

Ingredients:

 

4 cups sliced fresh strawberries

1/2 cup sugar 

2 tablespoons cornstarch 

1/4 cup fresh lime juice 

3 large eggs

2 large egg yolks

3 tablespoons butter

Preparation:

Process strawberries in a blender or food processor until smooth, stopping to scrape down sides as needed. Press strawberries through a large wire-mesh strainer into a medium bowl, using back of a spoon to squeeze out juice; discard pulp and seeds. Combine sugar and cornstarch in a 3-qt. saucepan; gradually whisk in strawberry puree and fresh lime juice. Whisk in 3 large eggs and 2 egg yolks. Bring mixture to a boil over medium heat, whisking constantly, and cook, whisking constantly, 1 minute. Remove from heat, and whisk in butter. Place plastic wrap directly on warm curd (to prevent a film from forming); chill 8 hours.

Anything from Smitten Kitchen is going to be awesome. I loved these Strawberries and Cream Biscuits served warm with a little strawberry jam. Recipe found here.

 

 

I love the sweet/salty combo of strawberry salsa. You can make it any way you want. I combined strawberries, onions, cilantro, lime juice, and salt.

Strawberry shortcake was my favorite dessert as a kid. We had just enough berries left to make it. I used my favorite biscuit recipe for the shortcake.

christmas cookies.

Christmas baking. I'm a fan.

Salty chocolate nutella thumbprints.

Orange slice cookies. An old family recipe.

 Peanut butter Bliss.

Chocolate cookies with peppermint bark.

fall baking.

Fall is here. Commence baking season.

Mini gingerbread pumpkin trifles:

Pumpkin and cream cheese whoopie pies:

Pumpkin and chocolate swirl brownies using this recipe:

 

And a few non-pumpkin treats.

A birthday cake. Chocolate cake with chocolate mousse inside and a chocolate ganache outside. And a crunchy toffee topping.

And I'm not going to lie. I've already made these cookies three times in the last two weeks. Nutella-stuffed brown butter and sea salt chocolate chip cookies. Okay, so the title is pretty ridiculous. Just imagine an amazing chocolate chip cookie (because browning butter is the best) with gooey nutella hiding inside and that delightful sweet/salty flavor going on. Recipe found here.